The Venerable Bede

A Celebration

Monday 25 May 2020

5.15 p.m.

The Venerable Bede

Bede served in the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow for all his life,

and died in Jarrow in 735 aged about 62. In 1020, his body was

brought to Durham to be placed with the body of St Cuthbert. Bede’s

body was brought to its final resting place in the Galilee Chapel in

1370.

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Introit Christ is the Morning Star

Christ is the Morning Star who when the night of this world is

past brings to his saints the promise of the light of life and opens

everlasting day. Alleluia.

The Venerable Bede Richard Lloyd

The Dean welcomes the people

Hymn We sing to God in praise of Bede (tune NEH 431)

We sing to God in praise of Bede,

The prince of scholars in his age,

Christ’s servant, lover of God’s word,

Once monk of Jarrow, priest and sage.

For his example we give thanks,

His zeal to learn, his skill to write;

Like him we long to know God’s ways

And in God’s word drink with delight.

Grant us, good Lord, one day to come

To you, all wisdom’s fountainhead,

With Bede to stand before your face,

Our Saviour, living from the dead.

Teach us, O Lord, like Bede to pray,

To make the word of God our joy,

Exult in music, song and art,

In worship all your gifts employ.

O Christ, our glorious Morning Star,

Come with the passing of the night,

Bring to your saints th’eternal day,

The promise of your life and light.

Rosalind Brown Samuel Sebastian Wesley

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Psalm 114

When Israel came out of Egypt : and the house of Jacob from among

the strange people,

Judah was his sanctuary : and Israel his dominion.

The sea saw that, and fled : Jordan was driven back.

The mountains skipped like rams : and the little hills like young

sheep.

What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest : and thou Jordan,

that thou wast driven back?

Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams : and ye little hills, like

young sheep?

Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord : at the presence of

the God of Jacob.

Who turned the hard rock into a standing water : and the flint-stone

into a springing well.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son : and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be : world without

end. Amen.

Collect

Almighty God, maker of all things, whose Son Jesus Christ gave to thy

servant Bede grace to drink in with joy the word which leadeth us to know

thee and to love thee: in thy goodness grant that we also may come at length

to thee, the source of all wisdom, and stand before thy face; through Jesus

Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy

Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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First Lesson [Exodus 25. 1 - 9]

A reading from the Book of Exodus.

The Lord said to Moses: Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all

whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me. This

is the offering that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze,

blue, purple, and crimson yarns and fine linen, goats’ hair, tanned rams’

skins, fine leather, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil

and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and

for the breastpiece. And have them make me a sanctuary, so that I may

dwell among them. In accordance with all that I show you concerning the

pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.

Middle Voluntary

Second Lesson [John 6. 1 - 9]

A reading from the Gospel according to St John.

The passage Bede was translating when he died, breaking off at verse 9.

Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of

Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that

he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there

with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.

When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to

Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to

test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him,

“Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a

little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,

“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are

they among so many people?”

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Bede’s commentary on Exodus 25

All these things that the Lord directed to be offered to him in a material

fashion for the making of a sanctuary by the people of earlier times should

also be offered with spiritual understanding by us who desire to be the

imitators of the people who saw God. For it is through freewill oblations of

this sort that we may merit for him to make in us a sanctuary for himself and

that he may deign to abide in our midst, that is to say, that he may consecrate

a dwelling-place for himself in our hearts.

We offer gold to him when we shine brightly with the splendour of the true

wisdom which is in right faith; silver when with our mouth we make

confession unto salvation; bronze when we rejoice in spreading that same

faith by public preaching; blue when we lift up our hearts; purple when we

subject the body to suffering; and scarlet twice dyed when we burn with a

double love, that is, of God and neighbour.

The tabernacle that was shown to Moses on the mountain is that heavenly

city which we believe to have existed at that time for the holy angels alone,

but which after the passion, resurrection and ascension into heaven of Christ

now receives the countless multitude of radiant and holy souls. Now if we

aspire to fellowship with the angels in heaven, we who are on earth should

always imitate their life. They love God and their neighbour; imitate this.

They come to the aid of the unfortunate; imitate this. Build a sanctuary for

the Lord in accordance with the pattern that was shown to Moses on the

mountain, and when our Lord and Saviour comes he and the Father will

make a home with you, and then after this life he will bring you into that

blessed tabernacle which you have always imitated.

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Hymn Ring Christ, ring Mary, Benedict and Bede

Ring Christ, ring Mary, Benedict and Bede,

With Michael, till our hearts from sin be freed;

Ring Cuthbert, Oswald, Margaret and Hild,

Till, blessed Lord, our hearts with joy be filled.

Let bells peal forth the universal fame,

Creator Lord, of thy mysterious name;

Conscience within, the boundless heavens above,

Disclose to faith the hidden name of Love.

Loudly proclaim with each insistent chime

How thine eternity redeems our time;

Past sins forgiven, and future hopes restored,

Reveal thy presence with us, gracious Lord.

Spirit divine, re-cast our faulty ways,

Make them ring true and echo to thy praise;

Through every change of circumstance and choice

May we confess thee with a single voice.

Call us to worship, call us to obey,

Call us to pilgrimage along life's way;

Rouse us from sleep; renewed in mind and heart,

Call us to love thee, Lord, since Love thou art.

Ring Christ, ring Mary, Benedict and Bede,

With Michael, till our hearts from sin be freed;

Ring Cuthbert, Oswald, Margaret and Hild,

Till, blessed Lord, our hearts with joy be filled.

Peter Baelz Walter Greatorex

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The Commemoration The Shrine of The Venerable Bede

The Venerable Bede, in the Preface to his History of the English

Church and People, writes: “If history records good things of

good men, the thoughtful hearer is encouraged to imitate

what is good: or if it records evil of wicked men, the devout

religious listener or reader is encouraged to avoid all that is

sinful and perverse and to follow what he knows to be good

and pleasing to God.”

Bede lived on the edge of the world, in a land with no

tradition of learning and converted to Christianity only half a

century before. He had no books except for the collection

that had been assembled by his first abbot, Benedict Biscop.

It was a collection that contained most of the writing,

theological, scriptural, scientific and literary, that had been

filtered down from the legacy of the Roman Empire. With

this collection Bede made himself the most learned man in

western Europe. In the words of one of Bede's own prayers,

let us pray together:

All Open our hearts, O Lord, and enlighten our minds by the

grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may seek what is

well-pleasing to your will; and so order our doings after

your commandments, that we may be found ready to enter

into your unending joys; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

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Bede taught himself to write Latin accurately and fluently,

and in that Latin he wrote commentaries on the gospels and

other Scriptures. These commentaries were as influential as

those of St Augustine.

In order to calculate the Easter cycle, and so bring peace to a

divided Church, Bede mastered the mathematics and

astronomy of his day. For centuries his books remained the

main authority for European chronology. His last books

were the History o f the English Church and People and the

Lives of St Cuthbert and his own abbots. He is often called

‘the Father of English history’.

We remember the places of learning of our land; particularly

praying for the schools, colleges, universities and training

facilities of our region.

All We entreat you, O Lord, that as in your mercy you have

given us grace to drink in with joy the Word that gives

knowledge of you: so in your goodness, grant us to come at

length to yourself, the source of all wisdom, and to stand

before you for ever, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

from Chapter 13 of Book 2 of Bede’s History of the English Church and People:

“Your majesty, King Edwin, when we compare the present life of man on

earth with that time of which we have no knowledge it seems to me like the

swift flight of a single sparrow through the banqueting-hall where you are

sitting at dinner of a winter’s day with your chiefs and counsellors. In the

midst there is a comforting fire to warm the hall; outside, the storms of

winter snow or rain are raging. This sparrow flies swiftly in through one

door of the hall, and out through another. While he is inside, he is safe from

the winter storms; but of what went before this life or of what follows, we

know nothing. Therefore if this new teaching has brought any more certain

knowledge, it seems only right that we should follow it.” So said the thane,

and the other elders and counsellors of the king, under God’s guidance, gave

similar advice.

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The Choir sings this Ascensiontide antiphon—words that Bede sang in his last hours

to comfort his companions

Anthem O Rex gloriae

O Rex gloriae, Domine virtutum, qui triumphator hodie super

omnes caelos ascendisti, ne derelinquas nos orphanos; sed mitte

promissum Patris in nos Spiritum veritatis. Alleluia.

O King of glory, Lord of power and might, who has this day as

Conqueror ascended into the highest heavens, leave us not comfortless;

but send the promise of the Father upon us, even the Spirit of truth.

Alleluia.

Antiphon for Ascension Day Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

A reading from the account of Bede’s death

“All is finished now. Take me to the place where I used to pray, where I now

long to be. There let me sit and call upon my Father. Take my head in your

hands”. So sitting down on the floor of his cell he sang “Glory be to the

Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.” And he died.

The Choir echoes the final words of Bede

Choir Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Thomas Tallis

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O God, we have heard with our ears, and our ancestors have

told us:

All The noble works that you did in their days, and in the years

before them.

They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts;

In that day when I gather all nations into my Kingdom.

You shall show me the path of life:

In your presence is the fullness of joy.

O God, the hope of our ancestors: look graciously upon your

children; and grant that, taught by your servant Bede, we

may also in our time discern the working of your providence

and trust in your continuing power to strengthen and guide

us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns

with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world

without end.

Amen.

The Blessing

God give you grace to share the heritage of Bede and all the

saints in glory; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father,

the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with

you always.

All Amen.

Voluntary

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Material in this order of service is reproduced under the Christian Copyright Licensing Scheme, and produced under CCL No 68670; MRL No 720413. Extracts from NRSC © 1989 National Council of Churches of Christ, USA

The Cathedral Office, The College, Durham DH1 3EH Tel: (0191) 386 4266 Fax: (0191) 386 4267

Enquiries@durhamcathedral.co.uk www.durhamcathedral.co.uk

Please take this order of service away with you.